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Well, that escalated quickly.

Doctor Doom will soon be taking over as Marvel Comics' Sorcerer Supreme, seemingly after the ending of the current Blood Hunt event series. No, this isn't a spoiler - Marvel is announcing it.

At Marvel Comics' Next Big Thing panel here at San Diego Comic-Con, the company announced that Doctor Doom is taking over from Doctor Strange as the Sorcerer Supreme of Earth-616. And unlike Strange who took it upon himself to protect the world from evil magic, Doom is too busy for that - so is delegating it to Spider-Man.

In the Amazing Spider-Man story-arc '8 Deaths of Spider-Man' beginning with November's Amazing Spider-Man #61, Marvel's wall-crawler will be enlisted as Sorcerer Doom's unlikely deputy to protect us from evil magic. To do the job, Spider-Man is getting a new suit, some magic of his own, and eight extra lives to learn on the job.

'8 Deaths of Spider-Man' is being written by Joe Kelly, with art by Ed McGuinness.

My big question is this: Doctor Doom as Sorcerer Supreme sounds like something bigger than can be contained in just one Marvel comic. I wonder what the Avengers have to think about this, let alone the Fantastic Four. (And an extra question, too: Why is Doom too busy to do the Sorcerer Supreme's usual job, anyway?)

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